anybody in the world today, politics is a big issue. we're here right in the middle of it. every day is a unique day here. it's still exciting to come down and show people this showcase for wisconsin. this is our third state capitol here in harrisburg. the first one was built from 1819 to 1822 and burned in 1897. the second was interim. it was built in 1888. this third was commissioned in 1901. designed and constructed by joseph miller houston of philadelphia. our building was designed in the american renaissance style. it's an italian building that tries to incorporate as many european architectural motives into it as possible. inside and out, it has just an

astronomical amount of ornamentation. in here and all the gold leafing. the principal chambers are am e amazing, marble and just -- it's an amazing work of art. as you walk in, we're at the west or the main entrance. that faces the susquehanna river out towards state street. u you walk into the center. the rotunda rises 272 feet up to the top where the statue of commonwealth sits. it's 24 karat gold leaving throughout. the four murals designed by edwin austin abby would show a figure with a sense of realism. the figure of vulcan in the mural and then blast furnaces. blast furnaces, pennsylvania, iron, steel industry. then presided over by the roman god of the forge. angels leading ships anchor

chains which represents pennsylvania as religious freedom. science revealing the treasures of the earth, mineral and industrial wealth of the commonwealth. the spirit of light has oil with angels holding flames up above it. as you go up further, you have a railing. then you have these large eight-foot tall windows that rise up. as you go up, there will be the lantern which is about 270 feet in the air and has stars in the lantern. that's up where the commonwealth statue sits on top of the dome. most people ask about the green on the dome. they are actually red clay tiles. but they have a green empire green glaze. they came from a tile company in ohio. the roof line running up there is actually green tile. that's what joseph houston -- he liked the empire green glaze instead of just having red terra-cotta tile. we're in the senate chamber,

pennsylvania state capitol building, one of three chambers in the building. the senate chamber is done actually in the french renaissance. each chamber has a unique architectural motif it keeps with. it's all part of the american renaissance. we have marble in here. we have artwork by philadelphia artist oakly. stain glass windows. it's really a unique piece, 24 karat gold leafing throughout the capitol. as you can see on the ceiling and you will see the leaf. most of the furnishing in the principal chambers is historic to 1906. the desks here are historic, the thrown chairs in the front and the carpet is a reproduction as are the ki the goal to incorporate european motives af ves and models. it stems from the world's fair

where they started to produce monumental public buildings in the united states. joseph houston really saw that. he had taken the grand tour and came back here inspired. he wanted to produce european buildings here in the u.s. that's where the design stems from. the top freeze is by oakly. it's called international unity and understanding. it has a central figure. then everything moves toward that. the arm is the earth surrendering. the slaves of the earth being freed as they approached the veils of unity. it moves toward the central figure. underneath, she has the creation of preservation of the union. she has the pennsylvania delegation at the constitutional convention, 1787. on the other side, president lincoln giving the gettysburg address. a couple interesting things to note, violet oakly lived until she was 87. in 1955, she came back before the senate at that time. she went into detail with the senators telling them that these -- what the representations of these murals

were for them. the murals were put here to inspire the senators. we have moved from the senate chamber to the house chamber. pennsylvania house has 203 members versus the 50 members of the senate. the house is probably the most ornate room. done in the italian renaissance versus french of the senate chamber. the time when this capitol was built, there's about a 15 to 20-year period where a capitol like this probably would have been built in the commonwealth of pennsylvania and that's 1890 to 1920. that gilded age. that's what houston called it. that's what we call it as pennsylvania's palace of art. we were at the height of industry. we were at the height of capitalism. everything was being made and done in pennsylvania at the turn of the last century. it wanted to show its industrial and commercial wealth. and it did that through the capitol building. all of the gold leaf and aluminum leaf and copper and everything else that was

incorporated into it wanted to show it was at the height of architecture and artistry and artisanship and that's what it chose to display. the chandeliers, the large ones weigh three tons apiece. the smaller ones weigh a ton and a half. they go through the next floor flew giant chains and turnbuckles. they're attacked to the trusses of the roof so they don't fall. the big chandeliers were done by henry bonner bronze company out of new york. the smaller what we call light standards and some of the sconces and whatnot were done by the pennsylvania bronze company located in philadelphia. the murals in the chamber here, the front mural has 34 identifiable figures from pennsylvania history with the genius of state figure up in the top. william penn, benjamin franklin, governor morris, famous

pennsylvanians. they are grouped by religious figures, famous generals, explorers, philanthropists and the like. the murals that flank it is penn's treaty with the indians. benjamin west did the original. that's a model. abby did all of the murals. he took that and morphed it. the last mural on the other side is the first public reading of the declaration of independence off of the steps of independence hall. the mural on the ceiling is the hours mural. that was painted by abby as well. originally, they were going to incorporate a stain glass dome into the ceiling. they decided to put another floor above that. he had to move the dome. we will see that at the supreme court chamber. they moved the dome over there and abby created this hours mural. it's the 24 hours of date from

light to dark. it fades from light to dark. he has the zodiac signs. joseph houston tried to pick as many pennsylvania artists. abby was a native of philadelphia but really an english expatriate. he did his work in england and sent it over. abby had done a work for the boston public library called the holy grail murals. houston saw those and really liked abby's work. since he was a pennsylvanian, he got the commission. he was supposed to do all the principal rooms. he ended up doing the rotunda and also the house chamber. then he got ill and passed away. violet oakly who was the first female artist in the united states to do large scale decorative mural painting didn't complete but she was given the commission for the senate and the supreme court chamber after abby's death. all told, violet oakly actually ended up doing the majority of

the work in the building, 43 murals over 25 years. we're currently in the supreme superior court chamber. this is part of the design of joseph houston's plan for the capitol that the rear central portion of the fourth floor would have the court chamber. this is one of three. philadelphia, pittsburgh and here in harrisburg, one of three supreme and superior court chambers in which the court can meet. the dome here in the supreme court was actually meant to be over top of the house chamber, we believe. it was brought here as they were adding a fifth floor to the building. even as the building was being constructed in 1906, they were kind of running out of space. they added more rooms on the top. they moved the dome which was already in production here. this green stained glass dome was done by godwin out of philadelphia. so it's got basically a penthouse over top that lets light come in from the side. it's lit from the inside.

on cloudy days the dome is still lit up. but it allows natural light to come in. this room actually is the final room that violet oakly decorated. she spent 25 years of her life producing work for the capitol. the first was in 1902. these works were installed in 1927. she worked on the senate and supreme court at the same time. she completed the senate around 1919, 1920. then went on and did these works for seven years. basically, you have violet oakly, the freeze represents her idea of what the evolution of world law is. this is probably her most original. it starts and works its way up through the 1920s, which is the evolution of world law and international law, which culminates in world peace. the murals in this way, william blackstone is a unique mural. that's the one when you come in the door, that's the one you see facing. you see this imposing figure of

blackstone on the bench looking at you as you approach the chamber. the figure off to the other side is actually william penn seated. thomas jefferson quoted penn as what he termed the greatest law giver that the nation has known. so lined up behind him are famous humanist thinkers. at the very top of the corner there, violet oakly painted a selfie of herself up in that. most people don't see that. oakly traveled to oxford's library and did research there. she asked the librarian for a history of law. he said there wasn't one. then i will have to write one she said. she basically wrote one in terms of her paintings or what she wanted to produce. which goes through biblical, hebrew, different evolutions of law. then comes up through pennsylvania law, u.s. law with john marshal and then world law.

it's a really original work she depicted here. capitol preservation role is to care for the fine decorative arts, the historic and ar i c architectural fabric of the building. we're a bipartisan legislative service committee. our goal is to protect the 640 rooms, the historic fabric, any of the artwork and architecture. that's the type of stuff we deal. the historic furniture, clocks, historic civil war flags. you name it, we're a little bit across the board in what we do and how we care for the building and its upkeep. what we really hope visitors take away from this is an appreciation for the monumental works that the commonwealth did and really an appreciation for the fine and decorative arts here in america. it's one of just a few that are as ornate as it is. we take great pride in keeping

it that way. and trying to ensure that rooms aren't gutted and that there's an aesthetic we try and showcase it as the masterpiece that it is. this might be the only government class you ever take. you are going to be a voter forever. you are going to be a juror forever. i need to give you tools that are going to help you for the rest of your life in those pursuits, do them well. >> high school teachers william camp and sunshine discuss how current events their lesson. >> this is a chance for them to learn about their story. their story doesn't begin the moment they were born. it starts with people who have come long before them who have shaped the way that the world around them they were born into operates. if they realize that this doesn't just start and end with me but what i contribute and where i'm coming from, it's part of this bigger story.

in that way, allowing them to take in other people's opinions, take in the perspectives of others through social media but also through video, it gives them a chance to be able to really think, okay, this is how i see the world but why? l how can i expand that by taking in other people's perspectives? >> tuesday at 8:00 p.m. eastern. cspan's voices from the roid. at the national conference of state legislature summit in boston asking, what's most important issue to your state? >> one of the biggest issues that's facing the great state of maryland is the issue, a problem of juvenile justice. in the great state, we have over 50 of our youth that are incarcerated for life without

the possibility of parole. i'm going to be working very, very diligently with the legislature to put in place a bill that will allow for these juveniles to have a hearing. that is one of the biggest issues that we see facing us in the great state of maryland. the second has to do with opiate. the use of opiate in the state of maryland is killing our young people, our old people. it has no -- it has no respect for age, behavior, mental illness, all of these things are important. but opiate is the leading cause of deaths in the state of maryland. so we're trying to do whatever we possibly can to eliminate this problem. that's one of the issues that we are going to be looking at as we move into the legislative session. >> one of the most important

issues we're facing in new york right now is rail safety. we have over 5300 rail crossings in new york. we have seen unfortunately fatalities increase over past few years while nationally those numbers have decreased. i have passed legislation that would require an inventory of the 5300 rail crossings so that we could prioritize and know which are the most deadly, which need a simple amount of work and which need to be eliminated all together. when we look at the 5300, it's too awesome to tackle. by focusing and making sure we can add technology and eliminate the most deadly, we can make a big difference and increase safety. congress has allocated money. now we need to put our plan in place to access that funding for new york to make our rails and make our motorists safer all together. >> the issue that's most important in my state is job growth and economic development. there aren't many problems that a good job can't solve.

if we were to have that, that allows parents that provide income and resources to children to provide them a good education and allow them to do a lot of pleasant things and wonderful things throughout their lifetime. job growth and economic development are the two things that our state drastically needs. thank you. >> the most important issue facing our state is the fact we don't have a budget. right now, towns are preparing to go into september, kids are going back to school, college is in session and our municipal aid is being cut without a governor. the executive order does not give him the power to fund our schools. it doesn't give him the increase education funding. it doesn't help our state employees. we really need this budget now and as soon as possible. >> i'm here to just make a statement about what we need from our leaders in washington, d.c. what we are looking at in ohio, we need to take care of our infrastructure. that's a primary issue that's

facing not only ohio but across the united states. we need washington to focus in on infrastructure. our roads are crumbling. we need trump and our length lay to legislators to focus on that. >> voices from the road on c-span. ♪ the kansas state capitol you was built over 347 ye7 years, w sun usual. they started in 1866 after the civil war was over. we became a state january 29, 1861. that makes us 154 years old in 2015. they w't